Australian OTA Webjet has bought New Zealand’s Online Republic, whose brands include the world’s largest online motorhome rental site, for NZ$85 million ($59 million).
Online Republic’s business units will continue to operate under their existing brands and management structure, although its new owner will look to cross-sell via its own platforms while trying to grow the Online Republic brands across Australasia.
Webjet operates in Australia, the UK, Mexico, the US and Canada. It also runs Zuji in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Some of Online Republic’s business units – its car rental business Airportrentals.com and online cruise retailer Cruise Sale Finder — strengthen Webjet’s presence in these sectors, while the motorhome business is a new line.
Motorhome Republic took 28,000 bookings last year and racked up a total transaction value of NZ$57m ($40 million) in the year to end of March 2016.
It claims to be the world’s largest online distributor of motorhome rentals and is building a presence in Europe and North America. Webjet noted that this is a high-growth vertical.
The TTV for car rentals and cruise was NZ$83 million ($58 million) and NZ$87 million ($60 million) respectively.
Webjet also has a B2B business which will also start distributing the Online Republic inventory.
Read original article
